Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men

Everywhere in the world women live longer than men - but this was not always the case. The available data from rich countries shows that women didn't live longer than men in the 19th century. Why do women live longer than men in the present, and العاب زوجية why have these advantages gotten bigger in the past? The evidence is limited and we're only able to provide some solutions. We recognize that biological, behavioral and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women have longer life spans than men, however, we do not know how significant the impact to each of these variables is.

Independently of the exact amount, we can say that at a minimum, the reason why women live longer than men in the present but not previously, has to have to do with the fact that several fundamental non-biological factors have changed. The factors changing are numerous. Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are other issues that are more intricate. For example, there is evidence that in rich countries the female advantage increased in part because infectious diseases used to affect women disproportionately a century ago, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, especially for survivors, ended up raising women's longevity disproportionately.

Everywhere in the world women tend to live longer than men
The first chart below shows life expectancy at birth for men and women. We can see that every country is above the diagonal parity line - this means that in all countries a newborn girl can expect to live for longer than a new boy.1

It is interesting to note that the advantage of women exists across all countries, the global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men. In Bhutan there is a difference of less that half a year.

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The female advantage in terms of life expectancy was lower in the richer countries than it is now.
Let's now look at how the gender advantage in terms of longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the men and women's life expectancies at the time of birth in the US between 1790-2014. Two distinct points stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is getting wider: Although the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was quite small however, it has grown significantly over time.

Using the option 'Change country in the chart, you are able to verify that these two points are also applicable to other countries that have available information: Sweden, France and the UK.